1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting and, more particularly, to an apparatus of the type to attach and support a camera-supporting device equipped with a camera therein and a fiber scope to the wrist of a robot having a swing axis and a twist axis.
2. Description of the Related Art
As means for automating the work of industrial robots, there have been put into practical use industrial robots equipped with imaging equipment in which a camera is attached to the wrist of the robot together with a working tool such as a welding torch, sizing gun, deburring tool, screw fastening tool or clamping hand.
In these robots, a problem occurs with respect to the approach to an object to be worked which has a complicated shape. Practically speaking, an interference problem occurs between the object to be worked and the optical system of the camera. The large-sized camera optical system obstructs the approach to the narrow portion of the object to be worked, so that this narrow portion becomes a dead angle or dead space and the visual function of the optical system is obstructed. To solve this problem, there has been considered an imaging apparatus in which a fiber scope is attached to the robot wrist and an image pickup signal which is obtained at the edge of the fiber scope is transmitted through the fiber scope to a camera which is arranged at a remote position, for example, at the position of the upper arm of the robot, thereby miniaturizing the camera optical system. However, in this imaging apparatus, there occurs the problem that the bundles of the optical fibers in the image pickup section on the object side of the fiber scope, which is constituted by tens of thousands of optical fibers, in the image pickup section on the camera side, and at the position between the object and camera sides are twisted and bent due to the motion of the robot wrist, with the result that the optical fiber lines are severed. If the motion of the robot wrist axis is restricted such that the degrees of twist and bend of the fiber scope lie within allowable ranges, the moving range of the robot wrist in turn becomes too small, with the result that the function as the robot cannot be efficiently utilized.